Electromagnetic fields are the basic factor of the most physiotherapeutic procedures aimed at normalising the functions of organs and tissues disturbed for that or other reasons, and are the most widely used in medical practice. There are tens of methodology and scheme variants for medicinal action of electromagnetic fields to a human organism, said variants being developed for recovering disturbed functions of separate organs.
For example, known is a method for treatment of cerebral vascular diseases of artherosclerotic nature, comprising the steps of acting to a region of an affection nidus in cerebrum with an electromagnetic field having a frequency of 50 Hz and an intensity of 90 to 250 Oe. The observed improvement in hemodynamics is implied by increasing the linear velocity of blood flow and the blood volume of cerebral vessels, normalising the tone of a vascular wall, decreasing the events of venous stagnation (USSR Inventor's Certificate 942,776, A 61 N 2/04, 1982).
Disclosure has been made of a method for treatment of the postoperative hepatic insufficiency by preventing the blood stagnation in the portal region of spleen, comprising the steps of acting to the liver artery with an electromagnetic field having a frequency of 80 to 100 Hz in the systolic phase of heart activity, and 800 to 1000 Hz in the diastolic phase. Currents having the frequency of 80 to 100 Hz act to the sympathetic nervous system, cause relaxation of smooth muscles and reduction of the pressure in the proper hepatic artery. Currents having the frequency of 800 to 1000 Hz act to the parasympathetic nervous system, cause drastic increase of the tone of smooth muscles and increase of the pressure in the proper hepatic artery (USSR Inventor's Certificate 1,147,408, A 61 N 1/18, 1985).
In case of thrombosis of blood vessels, it is possible to act to this region with electromagnetic fields in the radio frequency range (200 to 500 Hz) at a field power of 0.1 to 10 W (International Application WO 97/10875, A 61 N 2/00, 1997).
Improvement in the blood supply for organs and tissues, that allows to reduce pain syndromes of different localisation, can be achieved by placement of a belt comprising a series of variable electromagnetic field sources at a patient's body (European Application 0 160 703, A 61 N 1/42, 1985).
To improve the regional blood circulation in a pathologic zone during treatment of the long compression syndrome, it has been proposed to effect a sequential action with electromagnetic fields having different amplitudes and time characteristics, exactly, it has been recommended to act to an originally affected tissue with a field having an induction of 2.5 to 1.2 mT and a frequency of 0.8 to 2.5 Hz during 15 to 20 minutes, then to act with a field having an induction of 3.0 to 4.0 mT and a frequency of 2.2 to 3.0 Hz during 25 to 35 minutes. In such the mode of action, optimum removal of the arterial vessel spasm and normalisation of the tone of venous vessel walls were achieved. In doing so, a shape of impulses within said frequency and amplitude parameters corresponds to a symmetrical exponential impulse of current in a solenoid system having a current impulse rise to drop front ratio of 50+10% (RF Patent 2,019,209, A 61 N 2/04, 1994).
In stomatology, to treat soft tissues of the prosthetic bed, there are the steps of acting to the face skin in a region of projecting a disturbed tissue section thereto with an electromagnetic field having an impulse recurrence rate of from 3 to 30 Hz, a modulation frequency of from 0.3 to 0.8 Hz and a width of a harmonic component spectrum of from 500 Hz to 1 kHz, followed by increasing the impulse recurrence rate of the electromagnetic field increases to 80 to 120 Hz, and continuing the action.
Selection of the parameters of action is implied by that the impulse recurrence frequencies in the range of from 3 to 30 Hz are adequate to a living organism, the action spectrum width in the range of from 500 Hz to 1 kHz is the most probable frequency range allowing to regulate exchange processes in living tissues, the modulation frequency within from 0.3 to 0.8 Hz allows to provide the comfort state to a patient by generating the pauses even at the impulse recurrence rate greater than 30 Hz.
To individualise the treatment, the parameters of a natural electromagnetic field of a tissue are preliminary determined at a test section of the face skin of a particular patient in an exit region of the trifacial nerve face branch, said field being provided by vitality of the tissue, and, prior to the next action, and the electromagnetic field having respective parameters is generated for subsequent action (RF Patent 2,119,360, A 61 N 2/00, 1998).
To accelerate the healing of bone fractures and eliminate the disturbances of blood circulation, it was recommended to act to a living tissue with an electromagnetic field created by unipolar rectangular impulses having an impulse recurrence rate of 0.1 to 100 Hz and an amplitude of 0.1 to 15 V. A device to be used provides the presence of an offset circuit that prevents the impulses of opposite polarity from being present when a magnetic flux drops due to the drop of a generated impulse (European Application 0 181 053, A 61 N 1/42, 1986).
Disclosure has been made of a method and a device for non-invasive local action with electromagnetic fields to the blood flow at a selected region by applying one or two electromagnetic coils generating electromagnetic fields in this region. This method implies using the non-invasive ultrasonic echo Doppler checking of propagation of an impulse wave through the selected region, and calculating the changes in a wave propagation velocity as a criterion of the electromagnetic field action to be effected. The method is capable of selectively changing the flow circulation dynamics at least in the region of action. In doing so, the shape of impulses is asymmetrical and contains a pulsing signal component. However, quantitative parameters of used electromagnetic fields were not recited (European Patent 0 145 173, A 61 N 1/42, 1984).
It has been patented a device for action to biological functions of living tissues with an impulsed electromagnetic field, said device being intended to transfer ions from electrolytic liquids of a body into and through vessel walls and membranes surrounding them. The device provides action of an electromagnetic field having parameters selected such that the energy induced by said field in an electrolytic liquid is greater than the heat energy and is within an amplitude window peculiar to cells, wherein a basic current impulse consists of a current signal of rectangular shape and a current superposed to each other, said current increasing according to the exponential law, with a subsequent interval having a not less duration; a basic frequency of the basic current impulse is from 100 to 1000 Hz; an amplitude of a basic impulse sequence is modulated by a frequency of from 0.5 to 35 Hz; the modulated basic impulse sequence is transmitted as a series of impulses during 0.3 to 1.0 sec followed by a pause during 5.0 sec.
It is possible to optimise the action to an organism by selecting the field parameters, preferably, using a biological feedback. In particular, it is possible to measure the blood pressure and regulate the action after achievement of an optimum value of said pressure. A device includes a signal shaper comprising a low frequency current impulse generator to whose output a transmission antenna is coupled, and the device is capable of creating electromagnetic fields having recited characteristics (RF Patent 2,093,213, A 61 N 2/04, 1997).
Known are a method and a respective device intended to stimulate the central and peripheral nervous system for therapeutic purposes, said method and device providing the action of an electromagnetic field to a local region of a body, said field being formed of a combination of point fields created by individual coils and electrodes arranged within a zone action (European Application 0 709 115, A 61 N 2/00, 1996).
Disclosure has been made of an apparatus for treatment of diseases or states associated with hyperaemia of tissues, preferably of extremities, said method providing the possibility to apply a magnetic field to a zone of action transversely to the basic direction of blood vessels, and to apply an electric field transversely to the direction of the magnetic field, as a result of which electrically charged blood particles, such as ions, obtain a spiral-shaped rotary motion, and the flood flow in a tissue is amplified (International Application WO 82/01135, A 61 N 1/42, 1982).
Disclosure has been made of an apparatus and a method for treating virus and genetic diseases, based on action to an affected biological material, for example, a gene or a virus, with electromagnetic fields having an energy density and an impulse recurrence rate that are determined as a function of the mass of an object subjected to said action. The field energy is selected as equal to the gravitation energy of the affected biological material in order to provide achievement of a resonance mode. The procedure is performed in an aqueous medium into which a solenoid is immersed in whose interior a magnetic field is created (European Application 0 371 504, A 61 N 2/04, 1990).
To act to pathologic cells, there have been developed a method and an apparatus whose principle of operation consists in applying electromagnetic fields having an intensity of from 1 to 30 mT, and extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields having a frequency of from 1 to 1000 Hz, said fields being control fields (European Application 0 966 988, A 61 N 2/02, 1999).
Disclosure has been made of multiple embodiments of a combined medicinal action of electromagnetic fields and other physical factors.
It has been patented a method for treatment of diseases associated with the occurrence of pathologic cells, particularly tumour ones, in an organism, said method comprising the steps of introducing compounds into blood of an organism, said compounds, particularly iron hydroxychloride, being capable of generating the chemical energy and penetrating into affected cells; saturating blood with oxygen by means of hyperbaric oxygenation, that increases the velocity of oxidation processes and metabolism in the affected cells and formation of interleukins and other activators destroying the cells; acting to the affected cells with electromagnetic fields whose frequency is equal to one of frequencies of their electromagnetic absorption spectrum, is the closest to a frequency calculated for the affected cells and is farthest from a frequency of healthy cells (U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,014, A 61 N 2/02, 1991).
An earlier recommended method for galvanoacoustic stimulation of an organism comprises the step of applying two electrodes of materials having different electrochemical potentials to a region of future action, thereby creating a biogalvanic element. The electrodes of the biogalvanic element are connected to power supply lines of an electrical oscillation generator whose output signal is converted into acoustic oscillations of the same frequency and shape by supplying it to acoustic transducers being placed in an electrode application zone.
As a result of action of the biogalvanic element, the potential difference appears at its electrodes, and is converted by the generator into a sine or cosine voltage in the sound frequency range from 1 to 10 Hz, and then is converted by the transducer into acoustic oscillations of the same frequency and shape. As an internal resistance of biological media tissues of an organism is high, the main portion of a variable component of the generator oscillations is extracted at the electrodes of the biogalvanic element. With this, the frequency of both mechanical and electrical oscillations created in the region of action is determined by a tuning frequency of a generator loop.
This method realises energy produced by the organism itself and does not require external power supply sources, and also does not require the checking of action parameters because they are set and regulated as a type of feedback by the organism itself.
A device for realising said method comprises a sound frequency electrical oscillation generator and a sound oscillation radiator connected thereto and comprising a movable member, for example a membrane, and at least one electric couple consisting of positive and negative electrodes made of electrically conductive materials having different electrochemical potentials, wherein the positive electrode of each couple is connected to a positive power supply line of the generator, and the negative electrode of each couple is connected to a negative power supply line of the generator, and the movable member of the radiator, for example a membrane, is combined with one or several positive and/or negative electrodes, or itself is one of electrodes (Specification to RF Application 94-027,257, A 61 N 23/00, 1996).
To treat vascular diseases of extremities, an action by an electromagnetic field having an intensity of from 200 to 300 Oe and a frequency of from 40 to 68 MHz is combined with the simultaneous impulse barotherapy (USSR Inventor's Certificate 638,339, A 61 N 9/00, 1978).
For the same purpose, it has been proposed to act jointly to an affected extremity with a reduced pressure and an impulsed magnetic field having a direction of field lines along the run of liquid flow in vessels of extremities, a field induction of from 20 to 30 mT and an oscillation frequency of from 20 to 30 Hz, said procedure being implemented in an altitude chamber (USSR Inventor's Certificate 1,475,678, A 61 N 9/00, 1989).
It is reported that a simultaneous action to a tumour with a strike and wave impulse and an impulsed electromagnetic field whose amplitude is greater than a threshold intensity of the field of breaking-down the membranes of tumour cells, but is less than a threshold intensity of the field of breaking-down the membranes of surrounding tissue and organ cells, and allows to increase the effectiveness of sub-cell destruction up to full cessation of tumour growth (RF Patent 2,127,615, A 61 N 1/32, 1999).
It is well known that physiologic effects implied by action of electromagnetic fields to an organism are determined by characteristics of said fields and by parameters of actions to be performed. In this connection, selection of characteristics of the active electromagnetic fields and action modes is key and determines the effectiveness of medical procedures.
In all the above-mentioned prior art methods of medicinal action with electromagnetic fields, selection of field characteristics was carried out:                empirically, when the characteristics of electromagnetic fields were sorted out based on achievement of a necessary beneficial result;        by sorting out the characteristics of electromagnetic fields at which an optimum response of blood vessels to an action was achieved in cases when blood flow disturbances were evident and the action was aimed at blood flow normalisation;        by forming electromagnetic fields coincident in characteristics with that of natural electromagnetic fields of a human body.        
In the last-mentioned cases, selection of the measured natural electromagnetic fields was arbitrary, and there are not traced the relationship of active artificial electromagnetic fields and the character of natural electromagnetic fields taking place in a living tissue to be acted.
All the used electromagnetic fields were not uniform in that their uniform action to all the region to be treated was not provided because:                the designs of devices creating and irradiating the necessary fields for action to organs and tissues of a living organism were not optimised;        the normalising of geometric characteristics of the electromagnetic fields was not performed;        the analysis of biological effects in use of non-uniform electromagnetic fields was not performed.        
The wide scatter of electromagnetic field parameters and their numeric values taken into account in the prior art methods testifies that absent is a unified approach to selection of active field characteristics and optimisation of their effectiveness.
One inventor of the present invention has established that, despite the wide assortment of produced equipment for electromagnetic therapy and the significant scope of studies associated with responses of organism systems to electromagnetic actions, biophysical grounds for selecting adequate parameters usually are absent, so it was proposed to form the concept of “a bioadequacy of electromagnetic action parameters” relative to the bony and vascular systems as follows: “it is necessary to create such currents in tissues that would be close in shape and geometry to currents occurring in healthy, normally functioning tissues, and would correspond in amplitudes to a patients' sensor sensitivity (Schukin S. I. Apparaty i sistemy dlya bioadekvatnoi electromagnitnoi terapii i activnoi disgnostiki (Devices and Systems for Bioadequate Electromagnetic Therapy and Active Diagnostics). //Medithsinskaya radioelektronika (Medical Radio Electronics).—1999—No 3.—pp. 6-15).
The adequacy of a shape of intrinsic currents, J1(t), and of currents created using an external source, J2(t), will be achieved ifJ1(t)=S·J2(t), where S is a parameter depending upon the sensitivity of sensor systems of a biological object (the degree of activation of the immune system).
Realisation of such the approach, however, causes problems associated with non-uniformity of the conductance and geometry of biological tissues (Schukin S. I. Apparaty i sistemy dlya electromagnitnoi individualnoi terapii i activnoi disgnostiki (Devices and Systems for Electromagnetic Individual Therapy and Active Diagnostics). //Vestnik Moskovskogo Gosudarstvennogo tekhnicheskogo universiteta (Bulletin of the Moscow State Technical University).—1993.—No. 4.—pp. 9-24).
Said scientific references set forth general concepts of the theory of forming the intrinsic electromagnetic fields by a bony and vascular tissue, and indicate ways of studies that can allow to form artificial electromagnetic fields being the most adequate to natural electromagnetic fields generated by a living biological tissue.
The present invention develops, specifies and slightly simplifies the general statements of theory, that has allowed to state and implement the practical recommendations for normalising biological functions of any living tissues subjected to artificially formed electromagnetic fields.